Page 29 of Texas-Sized Scandal

“I love you, Ryder, that’s why I said yes. It’s not like I’m playing a game with you. I just want to know that we are planning our wedding,” she said.

“I get that, babe, but the truth is I can’t right now. Someone has leveled accusations of employee mistreatment against the company. I’m trying to investigate that and see if there is any merit to the accusation, because until now I thought I ran a pretty clean company. And I’m pretty sure your father had something to do with the accusation.”

She shook her head. “Listen, he might not like you, but he wouldn’t stoop to sabotaging your business.”

“You really think so? Because I’m pretty sure you thought I had something to do with the allegations against your father.”

“I don’t understand you two,” she said. “And I never said that you had anything to do with that mess, which is all cleared up by the way so it’s old news.”

But it wasn’t. Her father really did believe that Ryder had been the source of his legal troubles and it hadn’t made it any easier to try to get him on board with accepting her fiancé. She had to do something. Right now. “We should elope. Just run away—”

“No. You’re not listening to me. This isn’t some accusation I can ignore and it will go away. This could cost me everything. I have to find out if there is any truth to the claims and then fix this. I can’t run off and get married and pretend everything is okay, or that my daddy will swoop in and fix it. I’m the only one who can do this.”

“You’re being an ass and I don’t like it. You know I don’t wait for Dad to save me. I just was thinking that together as a team we would be able to fight this better. But if you want to do it on your own, then—”

She broke off and turned toward the door, but he caught her around the waist, pulling her back into his arms. He hugged her and put his head in the crook of her neck, kissing her. “I’m sorry. It’s not you. It’s my company. I’ve invested so much of my life in it and I hate that it’s in jeopardy.”

“Then let me help you,” she said, turning in his arms and kissing him. If it was her father stirring up this trouble, then she would confront him and get to the bottom of it. Helping Ryder figure out what was going on was the least she could do.

Ryder did love her, and she was going to help him figure out this newest obstacle so they could move forward with their lives together.

Ryder had always had a hot temper and most of the time he could control it, but right now it seemed like everything was falling to pieces. He had the woman he loved in his arms, but he couldn’t relax. He knew that her father hated him... Nothing new there. He had always been the kind of man that fathers didn’t want their daughters dating. Except he was a successful oil tycoon now and not the wildcatter he’d once been. Even he had to admit he scarcely resembled the rough boy of his past.

But that didn’t mean that life had suddenly gotten any easier for him. In fact, there were days when he wished he were still a wildcatter who settled things with his fists.

That didn’t excuse his lashing out at Angela. It was simply that he couldn’t plan for a future when his livelihood was being threatened. And he’d just heard that one of his executives, Willem Inwood, had some questionable practices with the employees and was a terrible manager.

It could all be allegations, but the call he’d just ended made it seem like there was more than a little truth to them. Angela wanted to help, but how could she? And he didn’t want to lose her. He needed her by his side.

“We are stronger as a couple,” he admitted, lifting her up in his arms, and she wrapped her legs around his hips as their lips met. Damn, it would be easy to distract her and himself with sex, but his office door was unlocked and one of his assistants was coming to talk about Inwood.

“I’m sorry for how I was. I’m just in a piss-poor mood,” he said, carrying her back over to the sofa and sitting down with her on his lap. “Seeing you has made my day better.”

“Good, I’m glad to hear that,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. “But I can do more than help you feel better. Want me to go do some investigating into the allegations?”

He took a deep breath and then nodded. He was too used to going it alone because for most of his life, the only one he had counted on was himself. But Angela was here, and she wanted to help. “I’m not sure you’ll get any further than I did with the complaints officer. He said the tip was anonymous and it was only when he started talking to my employees that he found the accusation had any substance.”

“Which employees? I don’t think my father could get to them,” she said. “The last person your employees would speak to is him.”

“I agree, but he might have overheard some grumblings and called the tip in. But he isn’t the source of the problems,” Ryder admitted. As much as he wanted to blame Sterling, it seemed that one of his executives was at the root of the issue. Which pissed him off. He trusted his employees. When he hired someone to work at Currin Oil he always thought of them as part of his extended family. Now he wondered if that was a mistake.

There was a knock on his office door and Angela shifted off his lap to sit on the couch as he went to open the door. His assistant was standing there with her tablet in one hand and a stack of files tucked into the curve of her arm.

“I have all the files and there is definitely some cause for alarm—” She stopped talking when she noticed Angela.

“It’s okay, Mary. Angela is going to try to help us out here. She has some connections at town hall and so she’ll be asking some questions to help us get to the bottom of this.”

“Great. I think we’re going to need all the help we can get. I can’t find Willem. It’s almost as if he’s just disappeared. I don’t want to get the police involved unless we have to. But he might have skipped town.”

Well, that looked damned suspicious. He would have liked it better if Willem had come in and denied everything. Or the man could admit to it, then Ryder would know what he was dealing with. Instead, the guy seemed to have taken the coward’s way out. “Okay. I have a guy who does investigations for the firm. I’ll ask him to try to track down Willem. In the meantime, tell me what you have on the complaints.”

“Who is Willem?” Angela asked him.

“Willem Inwood,” Ryder said, wrapping his arm around her as she came over to the conference table where Mary had spread out the employee files.

“That name sounds familiar. Have I met him at one of your functions?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” Ryder said. “Do you know him from somewhere else?”

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